Bob Moore wrote:

Ogden Johnson III wrote

I thought the MARS was for Military Aviation Something Something,
unaware that Mars was the *name* of the aircraft.

MARS...Military Affiliate Radio System. Formerly Military Amateur
Radio System.

Bob Moore
N4WZP

Sorry, Bob, but I know what *I* was thinking at the time. Even
earlier I had known about MARS, the HAM world's voluntary
military side. I certainly wasn't confusing it with the MARS
seaplanes I was looking at. What I damned well knew, was that
the then-name for the Air Farce's airlift service was MATS,
Military Air Transportation Service [which I'd been exposed to as
an Army Brat], corresponding to the Navy's MSTS, Military Sea
Transportation Service [which I'd also been exposed to as an Army
Brat, and just months before as a Marine Brat to get to Hawaii in
the first place], and I was trying to fit MARS into that naming
[at 12 y.o., I didn't know "nomenclature"] system.

[At the time, I didn't know that in Navy aviation nomenclature, R
was used for transport. Glad I didn't know. That would have set
me wondering why MARS instead of NARS, for Navy Air
Transportation Service. Damn I wish I had known that Ted had
been a Corporal in WWII then trained and commissioned as an AO.
{He went to law school between WWII/Korea, and was recalled as a
lawyer.} I would have known to ask him WTFO. But he'd just
married my mother before we went to HI, so I was still learning
about him.]
--
OJ III
[Email to Yahoo address may be burned before reading.
Lower and crunch the sig and you'll net me at comcast.]